The 4th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long

[Gardeningmama]

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I only saw it because I decided to eat my entire lunch hovering over the incubator with a flashlight fixed on the eggs. I was determined, LOL!

 

[chickenpooplady]

I only saw it because I decided to eat my entire lunch hovering over the incubator with a flashlight fixed on the eggs. I was determined, LOL!

 

[myfivegirls]

Well, I had to go downstairs to get more labels for the seed trays, so I peeked in the incubator. Everything looked the same, at first. But when I looked closer, an EE egg under the heater/fan had pipped! Just when I thought I'd have to wait until tomorrow for any action, my first egg pipped!!
Here's a pic, so you know it's real.






So far (2 hrs), with the salt test, hydrometer #1 is 67% and hydrometer #2 is 70%; so the one's about 8% low, and other 5% low;

The one (#2) I'd had in the incubator before, was reading 66% when the incubator hydrometer was reading 46%
So, if it's 5% low, it would have been actually 71%; that means the incubator hydrometer is 25% too low!!

Should I wait a few more hours for the salt test, to see what the hydrometers read then?

Or do you think I can quick open up the incubator to put the dig therm/hydrometers back in - since it looks like the humidity is too high anyways (it's still reading 46% = around 70% actually)?

What should I do now that the one egg has pipped? Should I not add the hydrometers and just keep an eye on the water level?

 

[michaelf]

Good afternoon back at ya!  But wait, it isn't afternoon here yet!   lol....how is the GA. weather?   We are getting up into the 60's today!  Yippee...

Good afternoon everyone! Congratulations to the winners!
It is getting really nice . Its 63 degrees. Supposed to stay that way all week .

 

[CayuseRanch]

Noahsmom, Sparkle is a newish addidtion to my flock. A family in the East Bay area posted the need to rehome a year old silkie hen which had been bullied and picked at so much by their flock and another who tried to integrate her into theirs with the same result. I responded because I had a special needs, thrice rescued from being picked upon, WCB Polish rooster in the house. I guess I passed the test, because they gave her to me. We met in Sacramento for the exchange.

I bought a diaper for her because I wasn't going to put her into my flock after she'd suffered feather picking twice, already.

Sparkle resumed laying within a few days, then went broody in the brooder bin I set up for her safe haven in my second bedroom used as my office, plus incubator room & chick nursery last year. I tucked some of my flock eggs under her. (Her eggs weren't fertile; no rooster access.) She hatched four chicks and did not take them out of the brooder bin for two weeks. So, she's been in the house seven weeks, but only the first two of those weeks were "free access" to the whole house. She mostly stayed in the office, which has been a chick brooding room before. Every day the weather was nice, she would go outside to be a regular chicken in the garden, but her coop is the whole house.

She has, and will have, access outside onto the deck and into the fenced garden right off that deck. Sparkle just isn't a flock chicken.

Chicken diapers are a fantastic solution to the problem most folks have with the concept of a House Chicken. Had she not gone broody, she would have worn it daily.

Please share some photos of the chicken diapers....chuckle chuckle lol

 

[Gardeningmama]

Quote:

 

[Happy Chooks]

WORRIED! So many of you are hearing chirping and seeing rocking. I see or hear nothing. I set on the 9th....is that the day all of you set that are having early hatching?

It's not time to be worried. After they get into position, the eggs will stop rocking. Think of it as the calm before the storm. Then they will pip.

Mine are hatching because I set them a day early and they are hatching a day early. It's day 20 for mine.

well just stepped out of a quick shower and now the RIR is star gazing again was able to perk him up again and then my only white silkie is pretty well dead. His body is completely limp and I'm trying to get it to drink something but no luck. I'm worried now what might be going on here, this same silkie was fine before I went into the shower completely. I dont know what I'm doing wrong

This is completely devastating and I'm considering never hatching again!

This silkie is completely unresponsive, just moving its tongue, beak wide open and body is completely limp.

It sounds like your brooder is too hot. I know a lot of people do 95 degrees, but my chicks are too hot at that temperature. I brood somewhere around 85 degrees, but I don't check the temp anymore, just watch the chicks.

Get them out of the brooder for a bit and let them cool down. Adjust your lamp so the brooder is cooler. They should not be lethargic. They should be cruising around happily chirping and sleeping close together. If they pile and cheep loudly, you know they are too cold.

My bator goes into lockdown at noon today. I'm so excited with the variety I have in there; Hatch day can't come soon enough. To keep me preoccupied in the meantime, I'm working on building another brooder using old windows! And I bought 5 guineas for the barnyard! Unfortunately, I think I ended up with 4 males and only 1 female, so I'll likely sell/swap a couple to get some more hens. Here they are 4 of my 'modern day dinosaurs' as my son calls them I thought these would be more manageable for him than the Emus. He still thinks we need a few of those! LOL I told him to start building fences!

Slate and 3 pearls. We also got a royal purple who is hiding in the hen house.

Beautiful!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats to everyone getting chicks and pips!

As Sally said, you will hear cheeping when they internally pip the membrane. Then they will pip the shell and take a LOOOOOONG rest before starting to zip.


Mine are hatching a day early - and I cheated and set a day early............so that's why I'm 2 days ahead of most of you. I have 3 chicks out right now and 9 pips.

 

[Jessshan8]

The absolute way to check the brooder temp is to look at the chicks..... If they are huddled together directly under the heat lamp or whatever you have it is too cold..... If they are as far away from it as they can get all spread out they are too hot. They should be somewhere in between. The brooder should be large enough for them to get away from the heat source to cool down if they need to. I use a horse watering trough with a heat lamp at one end only....... I hope this helps someone out.

 

[CherokeeFlats]

Congratulations to all the winners!!!!!